More Articles

A couple accused of running a “pill
mill” in southern Ohio are operating a second clinic in Columbus and using profits they hid from
the government to take extensive gambling and shopping trips, federal prosecutors alleged in a
filing yesterday.

The government wants the bond revoked for Nancy and Lester Sadler, the Scioto County couple
accused of running a fraudulent pain-management clinic in Waverly.

The Sadlers didn’t tell the government that they run another clinic making $15,000 a week, “
while the taxpayers are footing the bill for the Sadlers’ criminal defense,” Timothy Mangan, an
assistant U.S. attorney, said in the filing in federal court in Columbus.

The government also alleges that the Sadlers require patients visiting their pain-management
clinic in Columbus to bring a second patient not being treated for pain. The government calls these
sham patients who are meant to subvert a new law limiting how much of a clinic’s business involves
pain treatment.

The government says that one of these sham patients died after obtaining pills at the Columbus
clinic.

“The Sadlers’ continued operation of an illegitimate pain clinic also creates a substantial risk
to the community,” Mangan said in the filing, arguing that it justifies revoking the couple’s bond
arrangements.

The Sadlers are free on their own recognizance, according to filings in the case.

Richard Goldberg, attorney for Mr. Sadler, said yesterday that he had not seen the motion and
could not comment.

Goldberg said previously that the Sadlers did everything they could to ensure that proper
medical care was given to patients at their clinic in Waverly, which has since closed.

A message was left with Mrs. Sadler’s attorney, Steven Hillman.

A year ago, the Sadlers submitted affidavits saying that they made a combined monthly income of
$3,860 and required government-funded defense attorneys.

The government says that since the original indictment, the couple has continued to operate Ohio
Medical West, a clinic at 108 N. Murray Hill Rd. on the Far West Side, with Mr. Sadler as owner and
Mrs. Sadler as an employee.

The government says that the Columbus clinic takes in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year
and that, after expenses, the couple is spending thousands of dollars on purchases for an
embroidery business and on gambling trips.

The government says that this year, Mrs. Sadler gambled with $58,533 at the Hollywood Casino in
Indiana, while Mr. Sadler gambled with $21,368.

The 2010 indictment against the Sadlers alleges that employees at their southern Ohio pain
clinic were required to set up enough appointments to fill 30 to 40 prescriptions of powerful
painkillers a day at $125 a visit.

Workers who met the quota would receive a week’s pay for three or four days’ work, according to
the government. Those who slipped up got less.

In May, Gov. John Kasich signed into law a bill to crack down on pain-management clinics, which
are dubbed “pill mills” by their critics and blamed by health officials for contributing to
hundreds of overdose deaths in Ohio each year.

The law requires the State Board of Pharmacy for the first time to license pain clinics as
distributors of dangerous drugs.

The law also puts limits on how many pills a doctor may dispense directly at a clinic and tries
to reduce the illegal distribution of prescription painkillers by creating a statewide system for
collecting unused supplies of the narcotics.